Across the Window
by nerdyneptunian
Summary: Bechloe high school au based off of the music video of "You Belong with me" by Taylor swift. Basically, Beca moves to Barden to live with her dad and ends up with a window directly across from one of the popular, likeable girls in the school, Chloe Beale. Some minor Staubrey in later chapters probably.
1. Chapter 1

Beca Mitchell had not planned on enjoying any part of her move to Barden. It had only occurred when her mom had found out that her ex-husband actually worked at one of the top high schools in the state, and as the duo had been low on funds previously, it seemed like the perfect solution. Well, perfect for her mom anyway. Beca could only think of all the injustices she now had to suffer attending some stuffy nerd school while living with _Phil_ (she refused to call him Dad), and the step-monster. So needless to say, the entire drive up to the house was only filled with silence and general annoyance of the whole situation. Unable to believe that her mom made her move to the other side of the state, where she knew _no one_ other than family, was absurd to her.

Well, the absurdity probably would have affected her a lot more if she really had any friends back at her old home. Which she didn't. All parties except Beca involved in the move thought it would be good to get a fresh start, to meet new people who maybe didn't have to know that Beca had been the most snarky and antisocial person back at her old school (which was odd to consider, as there was no way she was going to be any less snarky). In fact, Beca didn't plan on trying to make any new friends that year, to just skate through high school until she could get her degree and move till L.A. This plan might have even worked, if not for Chloe Beale.

They had only just pulled into the driveway when Beca finally looked up and took stock on her new surroundings. Every house on the block was at least 2 stories high, all with uniform large lawns and garages. Basically any classy white suburb she ever saw in a movie. Grabbing her DJing equipment out of the trunk (Phil refused to let her work on mixes on the drive, saying she needed to do homework), her father finally engaged her in conversation.

"Man that was a long drive," he sighed, stretching once he stood upright, "what do you think of this area?" She only shrugged, adjusting the strap off her bag as if to indicate she just wanted to drop her stuff off and go inside. Thankfully, he got the hint, opening the front door so she could place her things down in a somewhat safe spot. And then the step-monster came.

It wasn't that Shelia wasn't nice, because she was, but it all seemed so _forced_. Like every smile was plastered the way a stage performer would, that all her lines were on cues cards just behind Beca so she knew how to act. There was no connection between the two, only forced respect. And Shelia's favorite kind of forcing was through her death hugs, which encased the younger girl in upon first sight.

"Oh Beca it's so good to have you with us! How was the drive? Do you need any help settling in? Oh, there's so many things…." Honestly, the squished girl lost interest in anything she was saying _very quickly,_ and all thoughts were focused on what was the best way to escape this extended contact. Eventually, she wiggled her way out and was given the tour which ended in her room.

The room previously must have been Shelia's son's room, as it was covered in posters and trophies. Fingers twitching to take them all down, she had the strong feeling that the older duo's statements that she could alter the room in any way she wanted wasn't true. However, as soon as they left, she got to work, taking down all the pinup posters (seriously, they didn't take down the Playboy girl stuff _before_ she arrived?), friendly photos and such to put up her own. Well not photos per se, rather just posters from various bands spanning many different styles. She also cleared the work desk of all the random trinkets the former inhabitant must have left there, instead setting up her mixing station of her laptop and sound boards there.

The whole process took about an hour, which was completely exhausting to the five foot nothing girl, having to strain to place the posters high enough for her liking, which led to her falling asleep on her bed without even thinking about closing her blinds, much less the fact of looking out the window to see what was across from her.

Beca was awakened to the sound of knocking. _Must be Phil.._ , she thought annoyed, pulling the covers further over herself and pretending to still be asleep when he walked in and out. Once she was sure to hear no sounds, she finally arose out of bed, stretching and looking around. Realizing that she left the blinds open, she moved to close them in order to actually change. However, she was immobilized by the sight before her.

There was a girl. In her pajamas. Dancing.

She looked like she was singing too, (Beca couldn't hear anything as both her and this girl had their windows closed), with a hairbrush in hand as a mic and orange hair flying around her like how the rays of light encased the sun. It ridiculously enticing. Beca couldn't even get a good _look_ at this girl, much less actually realize that in trying to see this girl's face she was staring. So when the dancer finally turned to look at her, turquoise eyes focused on her, Beca barely even noticed. She was paying more attention to the fact that her face was flushed from moving around so much, and that her hair was messy but seemed to suit her. Only when a white piece of paper was covering the ginger's face did she snap out of it.

 **Like what you see?**

Beca became flustered upon seeing this, grabbing the closest pad of paper (which just happened to be a sketchbook), to respond back.

 _I wasn't expecting dancing._

The girl just laughed, and Beca sort of wished that she could actually hear it, which didn't make sense because why _care_. The ginger went to write more, some snarky comment about she should have, and the conversation continued pen on paper across windows until the girl looked over her shoulder at some disturbance unknown to the brunette.

 **Gotta go :( what's ur name btw?**

(Her writing became more and more text talk as the conversation had continued)

 _Beca._

 **I'm Chloe. Nice to meet you! :)**

And with that, Chloe closed the blinds to her room, and Beca just sat there in awe of this sudden exposure that was the first of many to come.


	2. Chapter 2

When her father finally woke her up for school, Beca couldn't feel more annoyed. It seemed Phil's first thought when waking up his daughter was to yank open the blinds and _god_ had the sunlight hurt her eyes. She had fallen asleep in the middle of a mix the night before, working until the glow from her laptop burned into her eyes and her headphones felt like they had melted into her ears ad could not be taken off. The entire idea of being up right now was absurd to the girl.

And then of course there was the thought of school, which was another nightmare in it of itself. She would be starting class a week late, so that was going to be another form of hell, as most of the freshmen should now have been able to navigate the school, definitely all the kids in Beca's junior class for the year. They would know all the little quirks of the school, like what hallways to take to get to class the fastest, which bathrooms to avoid, and where to sit at lunch. Not that anything really kept Beca from asking other than simple pride of course.

Finally, after five minutes of rolling around, she rose to try and stretch. The DJ could hear her joints crack and felt her muscles ache, as if to plead that movement was not a good plan at the moment. She avoided these complaints, focusing her attention across the way into her neighbor, _Chloe's_ , room. The ginger must have left her blinds open the night before, as the entire room opened up before Beca, and she could finally glance at the mess of a home it was. The room was _covered_ in pictures it seemed to Beca (she couldn't see that far in that much detail, no one could), and random trophies took up all the shelf space. A backpack sat on top of an unmade bed, and it looked fairly full.

Her observations (she doubted it could be called stalking or anything because the girl literally lived across from her and left her blinds open) were eventually interrupted by her father, stating that Beca only had about 30 minutes before they were going to leave, and if she wanted to get ready for the day she had to start to do so. Beca clearly didn't _want_ to go to this stupid preppy school, but she sure as hell wasn't going to go with raccoon eyes from falling asleep with her makeup on. Thus, she settled on grabbing an outfit and headed to the bathroom for a shower. By the time she returned, the other room's blinds were closed behind a piece of paper, which was on display.

 **Good morning sunshine! XP**

It was club fair. _Of course_ it was club fair. Only Beca could have the level of bad luck necessary to have to deal with the packed courtyard of a school she didn't really know on her first day. She hadn't even known where the office was when the campus was empty, much less now that a bunch of tall students blocked her path (the curse of being 5-foot-nothing). So now she had to navigate around high school jocks that paraded in hoards while she tried to just get her schedule for the day.

So it shouldn't have surprised her when she full on _ran into_ someone. At least it was just some random teen guy than a teacher she fell backwards in front of. Beca checked the headphones that had been resting on her neck first (she didn't know what she would do it they broke, she doubted Phil would buy her new ones), and only after noticing they were in fine condition did she take stock on the guy she ran into. He was wearing headphones too, but just those stupid little earbuds rather than the bulky ones the short girl wore, but he seemed slightly attractive she guessed. Maybe he would seem more so for people who hadn't just run into him.

"My bad, I was jamming out and wasn't paying attention. I'm Jesse," he proclaimed, smiling at her. Beca mumbled her name in response, and waited a moment to see if he moved.

"You got functioning eyes music boy? 'Cause you've been staring at me," she snarked, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one foot. Jesse just laughed, shaking his head at her.

"I was wondering if you were new. I haven't seen you around."

"Yeah. I'm just trying to find the stupid office so I can get a schedule and map and get the hell out of here."

"I can show you if you want. It's on the way to my first period."

"How fortunate…" Beca sighed obnoxiously, but was glad for the help. It wasn't even that bad of a walk, as he put his other earbud back in and jammed out. The only downside was the guy was singing the _guitar riffs_ for _Kansas_. Still, it gave her a chance to glance around the club fair momentarily, and say there was literally every damn club at this school. Seriously, they even had a glee sort of club. What the hell was that?

She managed to survive unnoticed up until lunch. The grounds weren't actually all that difficult to understand once the office explained it to her (Props to her dad for not even thinking to _tell her_ where the office was). But of course, lunch meant a whole other beast in it of itself.

Beca never really had a "clique" to sit with during lunch at her old school. Usually, she just sat along in her music teacher's classroom making mixes and doing the homework she had inevitably blown off. But now Phil said he wanted her to make friends and get the real "high school experience", and the girl had no doubt that he would be monitoring her to see if she really was putting herself out there. So rather than immediately plopping down in one of the grassy patches near the courtyard, she figured it would be enough to just wander around the club fair for a little while. Some of the stuff turned out to be a little weird, like the DJ club, short for _Deaf Jews_. Seriously, how many deaf Jews could there be in the private high school. Didn't they have special schools for kids with disabilities like that? The only upside of that booth was running into another junior who was in her English class, and she seemed pretty cool. Then she saw some guys passing a water polo ball while in their speedos, which was an interesting sight to say the least.

And then there was that damn glee club.

So it wasn't really glee. It was acapella apparently, a group called the Barden Bellas. In front of the booth stood two girls, one blond and very poised it seemed, ad the other a ginger who was the one that shoved the stupid flyer in her face in the first place.

Wait.

 _Ginger?_

Beca looked up, and low-and-behold, there was Chloe, the mystery window girl. She appeared just as energetic as the night before when she was dancing, but it seemed much more reserved.

"Hi would you like to join our acapella group?" the bubbly girl asked, and Beca doubted she personally couldn't appear more confused than she was at that instant. Then again, the blond one looked just as lost as she did, so maybe she wasn't the only one who felt like that.

"Oh right, this is a thing now…" She noted, seeing how Glee had made the activity gain a crowd it seemed. Still, she didn't think the groups actually _existed_.

"Oh yeah, totes"-did this girl really just say _totes?_ \- "we do covers of famous songs using only our _mouths_." Why did Chloe wink after saying that? What the hell is going on here?

"Yikes." Chloe then went on to explain there were 4 different groups on campus. FOUR. Was this school even _real_?

"Sorry, it's just, it's pretty lame," Beca admitted, and noticed how the ginger's face fell for a brief moment.

"Aca-scuse me?" The blond exclaimed. That was it. Beca needed to get away from these two _now_. Neither of them made any sense. She ended up just saying something along the line of she couldn't sing, and with that just walked away. What kind of school had she signed up for?


	3. Chapter 3

They were all in music theory together. And by they, they were the group of music nerds who envitably became their own little clique. There was Amy, who Beca remembered from English and the "DJ" booth. She had graced the brunette's eyes with "mermaid dancing", which looked like an impressive amount of ab work for flopping around. Then Jesse was there, who was _still_ air guitaring to who knew what through all of class, and his best friend Benji who kept doing sleight of hand tricks. Stacie seemed like the most "I'm really popular and pretty" type girl in the group, flashing flirtatious looks at _everyone_ in the room, which caused Beca to flush when the taller girl sent wink her way. Cynthia Rose had been pretty blunt in her introduction, but was also very relaxed. There was also this Asian girl who Amy said was named Lilly, and Beca could barely hear anything she said.

And of course, Chloe and the blonde were there too.

The blond, Aubrey as Beca learned, had been grouped with Beca and Amy for that days assignment, which was to try and to get what one of the songs from a list Mr. Bruns, their teacher, made _meant_. Aubrey refused to let the girls even look at the freaking sheet, mumbling something along the lines of that "they probably wouldn't do anything anyway". Eventually, the girl settled on the song In Our Bedroom After the War by Stars, thinking since it included war in the title it couldn't be that hard to analyze properly. She was wrong.

Beca was positive the class stopped speaking when Aubrey started yelling at her.

"The song is supposed to be happy, he keeps saying they _won_ the war! They-"

"But he talks about everything they lost too, and that they _think_ they won the war. It's trying to explain no one wins in war, that everyone is hurt," Beca got out through a clenched jaw. Aubrey kept screaming about something, and Amy chuckled next to her. It was nice that someone found this as funny and ridiculous as the DJ did. Eventually, Chloe stepped over and put a hand on the enraged person's shoulder, explaining that it wasn't worth the effort to keep screaming. But it was. It wasn't like a Top 40 hit which was a little harder to find any meaning after all the sex, clubs, and drinking. This song was made to _connect_ with the listener, to draw their eyes into realization, like how a book would introduce the reader to an idea.

Beca ended up dropping the subject, instead opting to put the headphones that had been resting on her neck the whole time over her ears, but kept it at a low enough volume to still hear the class. Mostly, she listened to Chloe and Aubrey talk about her. Well, more they complained about her. At least Aubrey did. Chloe just kept nodding along, throwing in lines like "oh totes" (stupid totes) and "I understand". It was going to be a long year.

Chloe ran into her afterschool. Not in the way Beca ran into Jesse, but actually crossed paths with the shorter girl, and the redhead jogged over to her in athletic shorts and shirt.

"Hey!"

"Uh… hi?" Beca was really confused why Chloe had approached her, seeing how they really didn't know each other save the window conversation.

"Sorry 'bout Aubrey. She's really stubborn."

"Yeah, I noticed." _Was there a point in this conversation?_

"So are you related to Dr. Mitchell?" Oh. That was the point.

"Oh. Yeah, I am…"

"That's so cool! He's _seriously_ my favorite teacher, I'm taking my third class with him and- hey where are you going?" Chloe called at, as now Beca was pretty far in her walk away from the redhead. There was no way she was going to listen to someone talk about how _amazing_ Phil was, how he was a role model, that he was a great man. She refused. Who cared about how well he taught? He was still an ass.

So the brunette kept walking, and eventually the other girl stopped calling after her. Which was good, seeing how Beca wanted nothing more to do than to just go home (or Phil's house. It didn't really feel like home) and work on some mixes. Ever since Mr. Bruns had given them the list of songs, Beca had been thinking of bass notes and lyrics that she could use in a mix, causing her fingers to twitch with energy, as if the notes could just appear out of her fingers if they got to her laptop. Plus, she was in the middle of making a Titanium mix.

Upon arriving home (she walked, it was somewhat more bearable than silent car rides), Beca proceeded straight to her room. She opened up her laptop, and then checked her email first, in case her mom had sent her anything, which she had:

 _ **Missing you! Have you heard about this?!**_

There was a link attached that led to a page about internships through Barden Prep. One of them was to work for the campus's radio station, which was in desperate need of new workers. Beca couldn't ever remember filling out a form as fast as that one.

So the internship ended up starting promptly after school the next day, which was awesome for Beca. She headed straight there after her 6th period P.E. class (she sat out that day, so she wasn't sweaty or anything), checking her watch so she was punctual without being too early. Only a minute before she was supposed to be there did the brunette open the door, entering the station.

The sponsor of the station was actually Mr. Bruns, her music theory teacher, who smiled brightly upon seeing her. He was the kind of guy who seemed really warm and open towards everyone, even cynics like herself. Behind him was a senior who introduced himself as Luke, the station manager currently. Then Jesse came into the room.

"You're late," Luke bluntly stated, and Beca noticed the junior boy rolled his eyes ever so slightly.

Luke then went on to explain the rules – like no sex on the desk, which Beca thought was a no brainer – while Mr. Bruns went back into his office. Luke claimed that this was normal, and most days they probably wouldn't see the sponsor unless they actively tried to find him. Then he gave them their first assignment: stack CDs.

When Beca had signed up for the internship, she hadn't thought she would be playing her songs on the first day, but she had expected to be able to play _something_. But Luke explained they had to earn their place in the booth by grunt labor, just like he had as a newbie. This didn't quell her disappointment, because she _knew_ how to operate the station, it seemed to have the same controls that she had on her own laptop. Jesse still seemed upbeat even after hearing the girl's complaints about the grunt work.

"Oh no, I'm only here because I _really_ love stacking CDs," he chuckled, sorting through one of the groups of discs. Beca just rolled her eyes.

"What, are you one of those 'supposed to be outcast' new girls who takes off her glasses and ear spike and becomes the homecoming queen?"

"I don't wear glasses."

"Ah, and the crown is so close!" Beca cracked a smile at that, then the duo continued to stack in silence. They finished about 15 minutes before their time was up, so they sat on the no-sex desk to talk.

"So where are you from?" He questioned.

"Miami."

"Ah, that explains your sunny disposition."

" _Dear God_ , you aren't one of those pun guys are you?"

"You'll just have to find out," he winked along with saying that, and then offered, "I can try and answer any questions about Barden if you have them."

"What's up with Chloe?"

"Chloe Beale? She's your typical American Dream high school sweetheart. She's co-captain of both the Barden Bellas and our cheerleading team, and is best friends with the other co-captain Aubrey –" Beca groaned "- who is a senior. She's also dating our starting quarterback, and was homecoming queen last year."

"Ah, so she removed her glasses and ear spike?"

"Now you get it!" Jesse laughed, and at the end of the shift he gave Beca his number so they could complain about school and the internship. Which, Beca found to be the best foundation for a friendship.


	4. Chapter 4

Chloe kept leaving her notes in the morning. She had tried to get the brunette to actually stay for a conversation at night, but after Aubrey had walked into the redhead's room _once,_ Beca had shut the blinds every day right after school. The blinds were open every morning though, as if an indication to continue the notes, and that she was still checking up.

Beca didn't really notice she was doing this though. In fact, she wasn't even the one opening the blinds every morning, as that was her father's way of waking her up. She was about two weeks into school by now, and her classes had started to pick up from the "welcome back" fresh period. Most of her nights were spent up late, as every day Mr. Bruns had something to say about music that Beca tried to incorporate into mixes. That, and her internship became more and more time consuming the further along they got into it. Jesse at least was good for providing humor for those situations though, as he would end up staying up anyway watching movies on Netflix, which he claimed was humanity's best creation.

Still, whenever the DJ would wake up, her face some way indented from her keyboard – Phil constantly nagged her about the existence of her bed – she would glance out the window to whatever her neighbor put up. Usually they were the same "Good Morning Sunshine! XP" from the first day, but some of them were different. Like once, coming back from her shower, it questioned the comfort of her laptop, as Chloe had seen Phil expose the room, and saw the sleeping girl in the house across. Beca never responded to these however, because she didn't really know what to write, she didn't really know Chloe, other than the fact that her best friend was a pain in the ass.

Speaking about said pain of the ass, Aubrey had only become worse during music theory. Beca found her to be a total suck-up, showing set lists for the Bellas to the teacher, who only nodded, offering no comments. Aubrey also spent some time in the station, not working of course, but rather just looking through the music for songs, and placing in the "to Sort" pile upon leaving. Jesse and Beca never really looked forward to her visits.

"Blondie is moving to her natural position," Jesse stated in their music theory class, as Aubrey shuffled her way to the front of the class, right in front of Mr. Bruns' desk to hand him _another_ set list.

"Hmmm, what do you think she used on the list?" Beca questioned, tipping her chair back slightly to stretch. Aubrey got most of the songs she used from the CDs in the studio, and then Mr. Bruns would give it to the interns to look over at the end of the station work. He never commented on them, just handing them the sheets. Beca and Jesse would doodle and write over it, as if to improvise every list.

"Let's go with the Madonna album she drew out of Stack C."

"Really? I'm thinking the 'Now That's What I Call 80's' mix tape that she grabbed. Seriously, where did we get that?"

"What are you twigs talking about?" The duo turned to find Fat Amy behind them, in her usual _I'm amazing_ resting pose. Jesse gestured to the blond in the front of the room, who was in the middle of explaining her newest idea. Fat Amy nodded along.

"Where does she get all those songs anyway?" The Australian asked, dragging a chair over to them.

Jesse was the one to reply, "She's always at the studio, sampling music. Too bad none of the mixes are any good."

"Well that might change," Amy claimed, pointing to the pair in the front of the room. Mr. Bruns was rubbing the bridge of his nose, as if he was getting a headache from the conversation, and responded:

"Aubrey, this is always the same stuff." Silence fell over the observers of the conversation until Chloe – of course – jumped up next to Aubrey.

"Sorry sir, it's just that the tradition of all this is like, a super big deal to the Bellas. We'll make sure they're worth your while," the perky girl explained, dragging Aubrey away from their instructor.

Well, that was different.

Beca hated having P.E. as her last period. She always ended up sweaty before being stuck in the small studio, unless she opted to take a shower. The school's lockers actually had decent showers, but the crowd in the room didn't disappear until about 20 minutes before her activities. Still, after running outside the whole freaking time, Beca was sure that if she didn't clean off she would be kicked out of the studio.

So she waited. Watching as every girl filed out the door, she made a conscious effort to ignore all the people around her. They were all gossiping about random things, whether it be something about whatever teams they were on or just classmates, they were never quiet. So when the quiet finally fell over the room, she knew it was her time to undress and climb into one of the showers.

Today, she had to have one of her mixes stuck in her head. She was working on the chord progression of the Titanium mix, and damn it David Guetta made catchy beats. So what if she was humming it under her breath. There was no one there. Suddenly humming became full on singing, because the acoustics were _great_ in the empty locker room. Turning on the showerhead, she couldn't hear the curtain open behind her.

"You do sing!" Beca whipped around to find a _naked Chloe Beale_ standing in front of her.

"DUDE!" Beca shrieked, reaching for the curtain as to cover herself because this girl, her _neighbor_ , was getting quite an eyeful. It wasn't as if Beca felt just as overwhelmed as she hoped the other girl to be. Oh no. It was _much_ worse.

 _The first time I see another person naked in real life and its her. Of course._

"How high does your belt go?"

"My what?" She couldn't help it. There was no way she could focus on anything that came out of the redhead's mouth, but heard something along the lines of ladyjam (ew) and singing.

"Nononono no way, no signin-"

"I'm not leaving till you sing." Of course. So that was enough to coax a couple bars out of the shocked girl, and then Chloe harmonized with it and _good lord_ she was an amazing singer. Beca supposed she should have figured the co-captain of an a capella team to have a great voice, but dang.

And then Tom walked in.

At least, Beca assumed it was Tom. He was broad shouldered, and had a smirk that probably could light up a room. Perfect "popular quarterback" material. And he was naked too.

 _So the first people I see naked are my neighbor and the_ star _quarterback she's dating_.

Then Beca connected the dots on why he was in the girls' locker room and flushed, missing whatever he said to her, replying with a rude thanks before yanking the curtain shut because that was just enough junk for one day.

"See you at auditions Friday!" Chloe called out. The whole ordeal made Beca five minutes late to the internship, but only Jesse noticed.

"What held you up?"

"Chloe freaking Beale."

 **A/N So this is probably the last chapter where the whole thing follows actual canon. Like they'll stop being carbon copies of their movie versions put into high school. Plus, more window chats in the next chapter. ~nerdyneptunian**


	5. Chapter 5

Beca ended up going to auditions after the shower exposure. She would've liked to say it was just from the shock, or that maybe it would help her mixes to join a musical group. But in all honesty, all it was was that Chloe kept leaving encouraging comments on the window, all of which said at the bottom the time and place of the auditions on it. (Part of the concern was that the notes would _stop_ , but she sure as hell was never going to admit that to anyone).

So when everyone started singing "Since You've Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson, she felt unprepared. Chloe hadn't mentioned that in any of the notes, and Beca hadn't anything about it in school. The only thing keeping her truly stable was making fun of Jesse, who was also trying out.

"You sing?" Beca chuckled, rocking back and forth on her heels.

"What, you weren't impressed by my air guitaring skills in the station? I can do a mean Jimi Hendrix," he replied before going onto the stage for his turn. He was actually pretty good. _Well, not as good as…_ Beca thought, eyes drifting towards the redhead sitting in the front row. Chloe hadn't seemed to really be paying attention to anything other than the singers, bobbing her head enthusiastically even though everyone was singing the same song.

Beca had stood there unannounced until the very end, where only when Chloe waved her onto the stage did she perform some music trick with a cup she had memorized in middle school to learn rhythm and beats. Nonetheless, when she looked up from her hands, both Aubrey and Chloe were staring, although the redhead's surprise was much more inviting than the blond's. Hopping up quickly with a word of thanks, she hurried out of the auditorium before anyone could tell her anything.

Home wasn't any better than staying though. Honestly, she had figured arguing was only really characteristic of adults near divorce, but she highly doubted that was the reason Shelia and Phil were holding a shouting match in the living room. Beca could vaguely hear the words "school", "Jason", and "home", whatever that could mean. She didn't stick around to try and find out, instead opting to head up to her room rather than witness the battle. Going to her desk to mix, Beca blocked out all the thoughts of earlier that day.

That was until someone was throwing rocks at her window.

Beca's first thought was that she had slipped into a rom-com. Who the _hell_ actually throws rocks at windows in real life? Opening her window and peering down at the ground, she found no one on the ground level. She would've completely closed her window if another rock didn't hit her in the head.

"Sorry!" Beca glanced up, and saw her neighbor covering her mouth in shock. When Beca rolled her eyes, then the hand was removed to reveal a sly smile that clearly showed the other girl couldn't have been that sorry for her actions.

"Really? Throwing rocks at my window?"

"You weren't paying attention!"

"You could've just came to the front door!"

"Aw, but where's the fun in that?" She winked, and the brunette flushed. _Was this girl like this with everyone?_ Beca couldn't figure out if the girl was just naturally flirty with her.

"It would've been easier…"

"Jeez, you try to impress a girl, with these grand gestures, and she just shoots you down. Next time I'm going to just have to hold a boom box over my head."

"What do you want?" Beca questioned, and Chloe just smirked and held up a sheet of paper that read:

 **Aca-Party time!**

"Aca-Party?" Beca asked.

"Acapella only party. It's soooo much fun. We invite some of the jocks too to liven up the party, but it's mostly kids who are in any one of the four groups. OH and it's when we initiate the new members."

"Yeah, no thanks."

"See, I wasn't really asking per se, just giving fair warning. We already cleared it with your dad, and we're going to take you anyway over to my house for initiation."

Beca closed the window at that, and the redhead just shrugged before scribbling a note down, taping it to the window.

 **Your choice.**

Thirty minutes later Chloe burst into her room.

To say it was a shock was not exactly true, because the aspiring DJ had figured the redhead would hold true to her word. The true shock is when a bag was placed over her head and she was dragged to the house next door, only unbagged when in what Beca assumed was the basement.

It was strange to actually be in the house that she spent large periods of time looking at, but it was even more peculiar because her only glimpse of the house was Chloe's well decorated room. The basement was dark, but covered in candles. It turned out she was only unbagged last, and looked down the line to associate the names called out to faces. The only ones she really recognized other than Aubrey and Chloe were Cynthia Rose, Fat Amy, and Stacie, who she had music class with.

Aubrey made them swear some other about not sleeping around with a Treblemaker, which Beca protested mentally on the grounds of stupidity. It wasn't like she herself was actually going to break the stupid oath the blond made them swear to, but the ideal of banning a person from dating another just based on what afterschool activities they did seemed ludicrous. But nonetheless, she doubted the oath was serious, and swore to it anyway.

"Let's go party then!" Fat Amy exclaimed, and looped arms with the blond leader, despite Aubrey's obvious request for Amy to let go. The girls ended up filing out, with Chloe and Beca at the end.

"I feel like you telling me that initiation was now was an unfair advantage Beale."

"Hey, what can I say, I play favorites."

"Oh, so I'm a favorite now?"

"Clearly. Didn't the everyday notes lead you onto that fact? Besides, you're never gonna be Aubrey's favorite, that's definitely Stacie."

"Stacie?"

"Major crush. Which is one of the main reasons Stacie got in," Chloe explained in a hushed voice, even though they were no so far behind all the Bellas that it didn't really matter if that had spoken normally.

"So I'm your favorite because you pity me?"

"Aw don't feel so hurt Beca, you're looks totes played in a huge factor for you," the redhead chuckled, and winked. _What was with this girl and winking?_ Beca was about to ask her when they got to the party, and the girls dispersed throughout the room. Deciding that the corner was probably the best place to avoid the flocks of people, the short girl found a nice spot to lean on and watch the party-goers in isolation until Jesse found her.

"Becaw!" Jesse _giggled_ , clearly already enjoying the liquor that accompanied the party. The girl winced upon the butchering of her name, but refused to say anything as Jesse talked nonsense. Well, refused until he said something about aca-couple and aca-children.

"Whoa dude, no offense, but you're not my type," Beca announced, noticing that Jesse's face fell ever so slightly.

"Not your type? What is your type?" Jesse questioned, leaning against the wall next to her.

"Um, well… not guys."  
"Oh. How long have you known that?"

"Since beginning of sophomore year."

"Fair enough. So can you be like my gay best friend?"

"And limit my gay best friend title to just you? I don't know, that's a really brash decision I need more time to think about," she smirked, and Jesse just laughed before downing the rest of his cup. He offered to get her a drink, which she accepted, and then he proceeded to walk away.

Beca didn't stay alone for too long though, as Chloe came over even more out of it than Jesse. The redhead leaned in really close to her face, saying something along the lines of fast friends. She didn't really respond right away, or at least it didn't feel like right away because this girl was _in_ her face and _God_ had her eyes always been that blue?

"Well, you saw me naked so…" Beca commented, adding in a wink for good measure, as if to suggest that winks were just playful things to do between friends, and not to flirt. Chloe cracked the widest smile ever, before leaving Beca and walking over to her boyfriend Tom. The sight made Beca somewhat sick, but she figured that was just the stench of alcohol. Nonetheless, she decided to stick it out as long as possible, ending up walking home with Jesse and Stacie, both of whom ever _completely_ drunk, at 1 am.

She could've probably slept for eternity if someone didn't wake her up. At first she thought it was Phil, in which she was going to snap asking why he was waking her up at 8 am on a Saturday morning. Only when she sat up did she hear, "Sorry, didn't think this room was taken," did she realize that it was _definitely_ not Phil or Shelia, so who was this _clearly masculine_ voice that was in her room?

"Who the heck are you?"

"Sorry, I'm Jason, Shelia's kid. I'm moving back in, but I'll just take the guest room since you're set up. See you when you wake up sunshine," the boy sniggered, and then as he left the room said, "You may wanna shower before Mom and Phil find you. You _reek_ of party."

Only once the door was closed did Beca realize how much more awkward this was probably going to make everything.


End file.
